Road Trip

Oh boy, I'm SLOW in recording our fun September weekends, but better slow than never, I guess.
I promised to quick rundown of our road trip to Levittown, PA September 18-22.

We had been looking forward to this trip for a long time. Why?
• Extended time with our buddies Bill and Verna Weber.
• Opportunity to see our grandson, Miles Johnson, perform with his high school marching band.
• Celebrate Miles's birthday Friday night and Saturday.
• Spend time with our whole family, Jen and Matt and Geoff and Lisa, in addition to Miles.
• Hear Matt preach and attend church at Levittown Christian Church.

And all of the above is exactly what we did.

Evelyn got home from teaching Thursday afternoon after 4:00. The Webers had arrived here some time before that (they drove here from Indy--this was a long day on the road for them), and soon after Evelyn rolled in, the four of us rolled out, on our way to PA. We chattered all the way to New Stanton, where we spent the night (after a nice dinner at--where else?--Cracker Barrel!).
We were on the road in good time Friday morning and made it to our hotel outside Newton, PA by 3:30 and to Jen's by about 5:00.

We stopped and got sandwiches and made it to the football stadium in plenty of time to get good seats for the whole evening. It was Homecoming, so we got to see floats and the king and queen and court.
But the main attraction was the marching band. (Oh yeah, the home team won the football game!)

Geoff and Lisa made the long and challenging trip to be there--Geoff drove with Frankie, and Lisa took  no planes but trains and automobiles to meet us there. I really appreciated their effort to join the party.

After the game we retreated to Jen and Matt's for wonderful birthday cake (four layers, cookies and cream cake--it was wonderful!).

The next day we met late in the morning to ride together to Philly, where Jen and Matt had picked a wonderful Chinese restaurant for a family birthday dinner to celebrate Miles's 16th birthday. We had wonderful food--just too much of it. Evelyn and I wished we had split a meal. We walked around the city--to the riverfront, to a festival--enjoying the sunshine and the company--and a stop at a favorite
tourist site to try Mr. Franklin's ice cream.
And then we crashed at Matt and Jen's place before supper.

Geoff and Lisa left for the trip home, and then the rest of us enjoyed sandwiches and salads for supper, followed by a bonfire and s'mores in their backyard. What a fun, fallish evening.

Sunday morning we enjoyed worship, including one of the best sermons preached anywhere in America that day, all about Gideon by Matt. Jen fixed a wonderful lunch (country ribs in the slow cooker!), and after lunch we went to a state (?) park for a nice long walk. Nikki enjoyed the walk and we enjoyed the scenery. For supper we went to the Johnsons' favorite Mexican restaurant, and Bill treated. (Thanks, Bill!) The evening was still young, though, so we decided a stop at their whippy-dip place (I'm writing this too long after the events; I'm forgetting the names of things!) would be the best way to end the day. Oh, it was good!

We stayed as late as we dared (Matt is an early-to-bed guy, and Miles had school the next day). Jen wanted us to hang on after the guys went to bed, but we had a long day of driving ahead of us Monday, so we said good-bye about 10:00. It was a weekend we'll always remember.

It's a long drive home from Philadelphia, but we made it in OK time (lots of bathroom stops for us oldsters, plus a nice lunch), and said farewell to Bill and Verna about 7:00 p.m., thanking them for the weekend of fellowship as they began two more hours on the road to their place in Indy.

Vacation Diary, Part Two

Monday, June 16
We left the 9/11 Memorial and Museum after noon, and we were hungry. We stopped at the first deli we saw and decided to go upstairs, be seated, and order pizza, instead of ordering sandwiches from the counter downstairs. The World Cup was playing on the big screens, and the place was busy. And the service was slow. The pizza was wonderful, but we were there at least an hour. By the time we found our way back to the subway, got back to Grand Central Station, and walked back to the hotel, it was well after 2:00. And then we had to wait for the car to be delivered. Bottom line, we weren't out of the city till after 3:00, later than I wanted to leave.
But we got through the Lincoln Tunnel fast, and the traffic on the Turnpike kept moving. We checked into our Residence Inn in Horsham and got to Jen's after 5:30, in plenty of time for a wonderful evening.
Matt grilled some of the best Italian sausages and barbecue chicken thighs we've ever eaten. And Jen had brought in every salad sold at the Giant supermarket deli. It was a wonderful supper. We took a walk through the neighborhood to use up a few calories. (All 8 of us, four Johnsons plus Evelyn and me and the Cartwrights.) And then we adjourned to Dairy Delite to enjoy a true delight native to the area, water ice. We ate our ice cream, lucky to snag a table when the place was crowded with other delight-seekers. It was a great way to end the day.

Tuesday, June 17
We slept in a little and relaxed in the morning and got to Jen's around 11:30. We went to lunch with Jen and Miles at a quaint little coffee shop/cafe nearby and then drove into the city to the historical district. We didn't have a lot of time; the museums all closed at 5:00. But we were able to see an introductory film, the Liberty Bell, Congress Hall, and Independence Hall. (All the free tickets for the latter were already gone when Jen had called several days earlier, but the ranger let us sneak in with a huge tour group of high school kids, and we were really glad we got to see it.)
We had good tour guides at Congress Hall and Independence Hall, and we enjoyed lolly-gagging through the adjacent Washington Park, under the giant shade trees, beside a sparkling fountain, and surrounded by colorful landscaping.

The senate chamber inside Independence Hall

We walked down to Penn Landing and looked across the Delaware River at Camden, New Jersey. Matt and Miles met us and led us to Sonny's, one of their favorite spots for the famous Philly cheesesteaks. Wow, what a good choice. They were really good--and larger than some of us could finish.

We drove back to Levittown and decided we needed something light and sweet to get the taste of the cheesesteaks out of our mouths. You guessed it--another trip to Dairy Delite. Two days in a row isn't too much for vacation!

Wednesday, June 18
Jen met us at our hotel, because it was on the way to today's destination, Valley Forge. After a delightful lunch of salads and soups (and a couple of cookies) at the Corner Bakery Cafe, we made our way to the national park.
It was a h-h-h-hot day. I think the temp hit 96 degrees that afternoon. But we still enjoyed the visit. We watched the introductory film and looked at all the explanatory displays in the visitors center. Then we took the trolley tour around the giant park. The guide explained how regiments from the various states built log cabins, many of them each sleeping 6-9 men. We were interested to learn there was no battle there and Valley Forge housed more than 20,000 people, including several hundred women and children who would have been destitute if they hadn't accompanied their soldier husbands to the camp.

This house was Washington's headquarters at Valley Forge. The beautiful grounds surrounding it
(pictures below) were the loveliest part of the park.

We drove to Newtown where we met Matt for dinner at a wonderful Italian restaurant there. Byron declared it was the "office party," meaning he treated for dinner. It was a very fine treat. We returned to Matt and Jen's place for more visiting and laughs before returning to our hotel to pack for the trip home.

Thursday, June 19
We were up early and had plenty of time to linger over the hotel's breakfast before leaving for the Philly airport. We dropped off Katie and Byron a little after 10 and began the trip over the Turnpike and across the Interstates back home to Liberty Township, Ohio. We were home a little after 8:30 p.m., plenty of time to sort through the mail, pull our few clean clothes out of the suitcases, and watch Monday's episode of Major Crimes before heading to bed, tired but happy.

It's a New Year

Evelyn spent most of the day de-Christmasing the place after Jen and Matt and the kids left around 10:00 a.m. I paid bills and got the checkbook up-to-date while giving an assist here and there to Evelyn who was rearranging some of the winter-not-Christmas snowmen and other decorations. I made us big salads for lunch, and we walked after 2:00. With a temperature close to 50 degrees outside, I decided it was the perfect afternoon to take down the lights outside. It took me longer than I planned, due largely to an extension cord wrapped and tangled all around itself in the garage. It took me at least 15 minutes, maybe 30, to get it into a manageable coil that would fit on the shelf in the garage.
All the lights and extension cords and portable outlets are put away in the basement. The only thing that remains is the Christmas tree inside, which I'll tackle probably Saturday morning.
They're predicting a couple inches of snow, at least, for the morning and cold temperatures all weekend. So I'm glad I got the outside stuff done today.
It was the second holiday in a week I've spent the whole day without leaving the house. Really, t's a nice way to have a holiday.
For dinner we cooked a couple of steaks from Omaha Steaks the Aulens had sent us for Christmas. They were really good, and there are more in the freezer!

Miles and Nina posed on the streetcar
in the Cincinnati section of Museum Center. 

Today's picture was taken yesterday. We spent the afternoon at the Cincinnati Museum Center after a big pancake and bacon breakfast at home. The museum was open a little later. We left just before 6:00 and then headed to the Chinese buffet on Tylersville Road. The Johnson kids love going to a Chinese restaurant, and this one is pretty good. The place was packed, and we had a good dinner.
Then we headed home to play Apples to Apples before retiring to the family room to watch Argo on DVD (Jen had brought it with them). Evelyn made two huge bowls of popcorn for us to munch while we watched. The kids hadn't seen the movie, and I was glad to see it a 2nd time (the first time was a year ago at the movie theater). Then we tuned into NBC and watched the ball drop and wished each other happy New Year together.

Saturday and Sunday in New York

A week ago I described our nice Friday night with the Taylors and Johnsons in New York City. We had equally fine days Saturday and Sunday.
Saturday morning we enjoyed brunch at Geoff and Lisa's favorite neighborhood spot, Cafe Henri. Then we drove (yes, I drove too; we needed two cars) to the northern edge of Manhattan to a unique museum called the Cloisters. It features many remarkable pieces of medieval art, including glass windows, tapestries, and wooden statues. Its beautiful courtyard was a good place for pictures, as well as the surrounding gardens and the beautiful park it bordered. We enjoyed the fresh air as well as the culture!

That afternoon we ate snacks on the waterfront in Long Island City and rested and visited till the Johnsons needed to catch their train back to Pennsylvania.
After resting some more, we went with Geoff and Lisa to the waterfront in Brooklyn where we had wonderful lobster rolls at a stand called Luke's, enjoyed eating them in the Brooklyn Park, watching the lower Manhattan skyline light up with the sunset.

Sunday we got up early and rode to Central Park--we were there by 7:00--where we sat up our chairs, spread out our blanket, and waited till noon when the theater ticket office gave out free tickets for that evening's Shakespeare in the Park performance of Love's Labour Lost. (The long time to talk about life was a highlight of the weekend.) We ate waffles from a truck and then drove back home to grab some food and rest in our room.
That evening we enjoyed a great worship service at one campus of Redeemer Presbyterian with Geoff and Lisa, grabbed dinner at a Shake Shack, and then made our way to Central Park--in the rain. We waited under umbrellas till after 9:00 (the play had been scheduled to start at 8:30) when the rain abated and the theater opened. We really enjoyed the quality of the acting, singing, and dancing. A musical score had been added to the play; it was surprising, funny, and cool. And the actors performed like real troopers in the rain that started before 10:00. By a few minutes after 10, management called a pause. And 15 minutes after that they called off the performance because radar didn't show any sign of the rain clearing up. We didn't see the last thrid of the play, but we were really glad we had seen some of it in the beautiful open-air theater in Central Park.

New York with the Fam

Evelyn and I drove just past Harrisburg, PA last night and stayed overnight before driving the rest of the way into the city today. I had never taken the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan, nor driven in Manhattan before. But Geoff gave me perfect step-by-step, turn-by-turn directions, and, actually it was a breeze. The traffic on 40th Street across to Third Avenue was stop-and-go most of the way, but we weren't in a hurry, and it gave us time to soak up the city atmosphere and make sure we were in the right spot.

I  snapped this picture out my windshield stopped at Broadway and 40th Street.

We got checked into our hotel in Long Island City in time to change clothes and walk the few blocks down to Geoff and Lisa's apartment. Matt and the kids were already there, and after awhile, we walked to the subway to meet Lisa and Jen in the city (Lisa was at work, and Jen met with Orchard Group yesterday and today.) We took the subway to Central Park where Lisa managed a family photo shoot. That had been Evelyn's request--a picture of all of us since we were all going to be together. Two of Lisa and Geoff's good friends met us at the park and actually snapped the pictures of all 8 of us, using Lisa's camera. And Lisa took pictures of the smaller groups herself. We took pictures in at least three different locations, and we're looking forward to Lisa's Photoshop work to turn them into masterpieces!

 

Then we subwayed to the location for our celebration dinner. The occasion was our 40th wedding anniversary. The kids had picked out a wonderful restaurant, The Harrison, where we enjoyed a long, relaxing, wonderful dinner. Lots of laughter, great food, a very fine time. And our dessert came with a special greeting from the chef.

We walked the Highline after that and returned to Geoff and Lisa's apartment full of memories of a wonderful family celebration.

It Was Wonderful!

This will be one of those "make-up" diary entries I mentioned yesterday. Let me be one of the last writers in the blogosphere to add my reflections about the North American Christian Convention last week in Louisville.
In a word, it was wonderful. I suppose if I were to add a second word it would be exhausting. By the time we were driving home Friday afternoon about 3:00, I was completely spent. Evelyn drove, and I napped.
Highlights for me:

• Getting to interview almost a dozen of the convention's main session speakers and special guests, including Wayne Cordeiro, Eric Metaxas, Ken Davis, and, most memorable, Joni Eareckson Tada. They were universally gracious, with meaningful challenges for me personally and every Christian. The interviews will be posted, one or two at a time, over the next couple of weeks at ChristianStandard.com.

Eric Metaxas was passionate and personal.

Wayne Cordeiro was warm and wise.

• Working with Tim Antkowiak of Southland Christian Church, who did all the videotaping of the interviews. Tim went above and beyond what we asked him to do: brought in a green screen so he could insert unique backgrounds behind the interviewer and his subject; created a lead-in tape with background music; edited the feed from two cameras into one smooth program. He told me he's spending about 3 hours of editing for each 10-15 minute interview. And he couldn't have been more pleasant or flexible or dependable during the convention itself.
• Bunking with Miles and Jennifer (as well as Evelyn!) in the Marriott for the week. It was a special joy to see Miles enjoying the convention, meeting Jennifer's friends, and showing his potential as a young Christian man. And he's fun! 
• Hearing Sam Stone choke up when he got to the end of his speech at the Cincinnati Christian University banquet, on the line, "There's no one I would more like to see receive the Legacy in Leadership Award than Mark and Evelyn Taylor." There are so many years and experiences and shared memories contained in that moment.

Sam and Gwen posed with Evelyn and me after the CCU banquet.

• In spite of the busy schedules, enjoying special times with relatives, coworkers, and friends at several special meals. I'm thinking in particular of our Tuesday-night meal with the Aulen clan, my Tuesday-night dessert with Paul Williams, and our Friday-afternoon lunch celebration hosted by Robb Faust for all of us who had helped him pull off the Standard display. 
• The sermons! As I wrote at the Christian Standard website, the preaching moved me more this year than any year I can remember. You really should go to the NACC website and listen to several of them. My favorites: Matt Proctor, Aaron Brockett, Randy Harris, Rick Atchley, Joni Eareckson Tada. (And the other two were outstanding, too! Listen to all of 'em!)

Picture Perfect

Nina painted a wooden frame and gave it to us for Christmas, and it's been leaning on a table in the family room downstairs ever since then. She painted it red, which goes perfectly with the room, and we knew we wanted to use it down there. But we just hadn't printed a picture to put inside it.
Tonight after work I went to the Kodak kiosk at Kroger's with the disk of the Johnsons' engagement pictures, because I remembered there were some in the batch just of Miles and Nina. But I didn't take time to choose the picture we would use before I grabbed the disk and headed for work.
So when I got to the kiosk, I couldn't decide which picture to use. So I printed three of 'em. These two are the ones I did NOT put in the frame! At least not yet. Maybe another day I'll take a picture of the picture in the frame so Nina can see how we're using her handiwork.
Accomplished a lot at work today. Stuck with it and finished reading the proof for our April issue (goes to the printer next week). Did some correspondence to nail down some assignments for some future issues and participated in an hour-long call with planners of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue, which will meet in Indianapolis in October.
Taking a half day of vacation tomorrow and then taking the afternoon off to work on a project that I'll write more about later.

Happy New Year!

We were up last night till after 1:00 this morning, and I didn't muster the energy to blog before I went to bed. We had Terry and Shirley Wuske for dinner. Evelyn made chicken parmigiana with green beans, tossed salad, and spaghetti (of course!). We had Graeter's ice cream and Christmas cookies and other confections for dessert and cheeseball and dip and crackers, with hot Christmas punch, for appetizer. It was a fun evening. We played a new version of "Buzzword" that Jennifer had brought and a new game Robb Faust had recommended to me, "What's Yours Like?" Then we reconvened downstairs in front of the TV to watch the ball drop and toast in the new year.

Earlier in the day, Nina and Jen painted their toes to welcome 2013. And then Jennifer and Nina (with a little help from Miles) decorated sugar cookies, trying out the new Ninja cookie cutters Jen gave Miles for Christmas.

Matt and Miles and I made a Target run for Miles to spend a Christmas gift card. And Matt, Miles, Nina, and I played a couple games of "Sequence" before I helped Evelyn get things ready for dinner.
This morning we were up at 8:00 to see off the Johnsons for their long trip home. They got away about 9:15, and Jen texted about 7:45 this evening to say they were home. Thankfully, this was an uneventful trip, unlike the journey here!
The house was quiet and empty--full of Christmas decorations, but no more Christmas. Before long, Evelyn and I started picking up, packing up, and putting away all the Christmas decorations. I ran to the store after lunch and then took down the tree this afternoon. We always leave a few of the Christmas things out till maybe February--those that look wintery without saying Santa Claus or Jingle Bells.
I'm almost ready, mentally, to jump back into the workaday routine. Our long Christmas vacation seems this evening to have been so short. But it's full of memories.
For supper we had sauerkraut and "gourmet hot dogs" from the wonderful Omaha Steaks package Ken and Susan sent us for Christmas. They say pork and sauerkraut is good luck for the new year. I said some prayers about the challenging year ahead as I was driving alone this afternoon. Lots of possibilities. Lots of challenges.
Several days ago Jennifer posted a quote I've been thinking about as the year is beginning:
"The measure of success isn't whether you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same one you had last year." -John Dulles
Here's a challenge to me: When you're reading this blog post at the beginning of 2014, will you still be fretting about the problems that faced you at the beginning of 2013? Now's the time to deal with those problems--so I'll be experienced and able to tackle all the NEW problems of that year!

A Quiet Day, a Quick Day

By "quick," I mean the time passed by quickly, even though we weren't that busy. Maybe the fact that we weren't too busy made it all the more surprising when I looked up at the clock and realized another couple of hours had passed.
The Johnsons arrived at about 1 a.m. this morning after having left home yesterday at 9:30 a.m. (and no, there are no time changes involved from their house to ours). They were exhausted after navigating the Pennsylvania Turnpike through a small blizzard, waiting maybe two hours for an accident to be cleared and waiting another hour for the tow truck to pull them out of a ditch after they'd slid on an unexpected patch of ice.
In spite of how tired all of us were, we stood or sat and talked and snacked for another hour before finally turning in about 2:00.
Most of us slept in this morning. (Matt was up before any of us, though, for his morning run.) We nibbled on cinnamon roles and sipped coffee and visited before splitting off from the group to shower and get ready for the day. By the time everyone had finished that, it was almost time for lunch! We enjoyed Christmas ham and cheese ball and then adjourned to game playing (and a phone call from Geoff on his way to his Colorado ski trip after Christmas in Fort Collins) while Jen had a business call at 2:30. Before 4:00 we headed to our outing for the day to Kohl's and Target to pick up some necessities and bargains.

Evelyn took a first look at the
calendar Jen made us featuring
pictures of the Johnsons from this year
to decorate our kitchen next year.

When we came home, Evelyn and I put together dinner, starting with some yummies from the freezer, courtesy of the Aulens who sent us a big box of good things from Omaha Steaks for Christmas. We probably ate dinner after 6:30, maybe it was 7:00. When we looked up and saw it was already 9:00, we knew we had to get busy opening the packages under the tree. Actually we had just a few, except for the grab bag gifts I had bought and wrapped. We had fun choosing, opening, stealing, and admiring the fun little goodies "Santa" had brought us.
The day went quickly. But it was a relaxed day, quiet in many ways. A good way to spend  Christmastime with family.

To the East and Back

This is another example of lots to write about/no time to write it. We left the Starbucks in Newtown, PA this morning at 7:30 and pulled into our driveway a little after 6:30 this evening. Not bad, considering a stop at Cracker Barrel for lunch and thick, can't-use-the-cruise-control traffic for a hundred miles east of Columbus till we got to I-270.  This post is going to be more pictures than words.

We saw snow on the ground at the higher elevations on the PA Turnpike today, but none on the roads, and the sun was shining by the time we got to Columbus.
To recap the week:
We arrived at Newtown Tuesday evening and spent Wednesday morning exploring the little shops in the village. Wednesday afternoon we visited and ran errands with Jennifer, and Evelyn did some food prep for the next day. Then we went with Jen and Matt to a diner for dinner Wednesday evening.
We returned from our hotel to Matt and Jen's place Thursday morning to watch the Macy's parade on television and await Miles and Nina's arrival from their mom's place at noon. Geoff and Lisa (and Frankie!) arrived about 1:30, and we enjoyed a walk with the dogs through the fine neighborhood next to the church. Dinner was about 4:00, and it was a sumptuous feast. My pictures give only a hint of how tasty and abundant was the food. I did not get a picture of the spatchcocked turkey! It was as good to eat as it was fun to say!

Miles and Matt and Geoff and I played Settlers of Catan after dessert (Lisa made the cherry pie pictured above as well as a wonderful pumpkin pie.) The ladies watched the dog show Jen had recorded earlier in the day.
Friday Jen and Matt and Evelyn and I took the train to New York and the subway to Long Island City  for 24 hours in the city with the New York Taylors. It was a great time. We walked down to the East River to see the expanding park along the riverfront and enjoy the always captivating views of the city.

Soon we took the subway to Tribeca and enjoyed a wonderful dinner and then took cabs to the movie theater to see a sold-out showing of Lincoln. I started with a head cold on Thanksgiving evening and was feeling a little ragged by Friday evening, and I'm afraid I even dozed off a couple of times during the movie. It is a bit wordy, but maybe I'll watch it again when it's available on DVD.
We stayed in Long Island City that night and enjoyed a gourmet brunch at Geoff and Lisa's favorite Long Island City breakfast spot, Cafe Henri. After 1:00 we took the train back to New Jersey and then drove back to Levittown. Matt had church work to do in the afternoon. I checked into our hotel, ran to the grocery store, and then took a nap on Jen's couch. We ate yummy Thanksgiving  leftovers for supper, and had a nice visit before we headed back to rest up before an early departure this morning.